Do Food Photos Increase Orders? What the Research Says
The delivery platforms say yes. Just Eat says an item gets 16% more orders on average after it gets a photo. Academic studies support part of the claim. None of them measures orders on a delivery app.
We make MenuPhotoAI, an AI food photography tool, so we have an interest and link each figure to its source.
By the MenuPhotoAI team · Updated October 2026 · 12 min read
The Short Answer
Five delivery platforms report more orders or sales for menus with photos. Just Eat reports 16% more orders on average for an item after it gets a photo. Grubhub reports up to 70% more orders for menus that follow its best practices. Those practices include photos and descriptions.
Academic studies show that pictures can raise the intention to buy. No independent study measures order uplift on a delivery app. The platforms give little detail about their methods.
MenuPhotoAI turns your own dish photos into menu photos with an AI food image generator. You can try 5 photos for free. No credit card required.
Try 5 Free PhotosWhat the Studies and the Platforms Report
This page uses eight academic papers, two company surveys, and figures that five delivery platforms publish about their own data.
What the Delivery Platforms Say About Their Own Data
Each platform below sells services to restaurants, so it has an interest in these figures. The platforms give little detail about their methods.
Just Eat says an item gets 16% more orders on average after it gets a photo. It also says items with images go into baskets four times more often.
DoorDash reports up to 44% more monthly sales for menus with item photos. The figure comes from its study of over 15,000 merchants in Q2 2022.
Source: DoorDash merchant blog
Deliveroo says sites with menu photos can increase their orders by 25%.
Source: Deliveroo help page
Grubhub says restaurants that follow its menu best practices get up to 70% more orders and 65% higher sales. Those practices include photos and descriptions.
Source: Grubhub help center
Grubhub says restaurants that changed from text menus to photo menus saw conversion rise by about 25% on average.
Source: Grubhub blog
Uber says merchants with photos and descriptions on at least 70% of items made $330 more in weekly sales. This is an average for US and Canada merchants who did so in their first 7 days. Uber notes that results vary.
Source: Uber Eats merchant page
How customers use photos, by the platforms' own figures:
- DoorDash estimates that 38% of customers use menu photos to choose a restaurant (April 2025).
- Just Eat says 42% of customers try a new restaurant because of the photography.
- Just Eat also says 38% of customers tried a new item when it had a photo.
- DoorDash says food photos sway 46% of US Gen Z and 41% of US Millennials (2025 trends page).
- In 2018 Deliveroo said that menu items with a photo had a 6.5% higher menu conversion than items without one. The link opens an archived copy.
Correction, October 2026: an earlier version of this page credited the 6.5% figure to a 2014 university study. We found no such study. We also removed a 2021 survey figure that we could not trace to a source.
Our Product
MenuPhotoAI turns your own dish photos into menu photos. We cannot promise more orders. You can test the photos for free.
What Independent Studies Found
Hou, Yang and Sun (2017), International Journal of Hospitality Management
Study Title: "Do pictures help? The effects of pictures and food names on menu evaluations". This is the one paper on this page that compares menu items with and without pictures.
What the Study Tested:
- Menu items with a picture and without one
- Common descriptive dish names and ambiguous names
- Readers who prefer words and readers who prefer images
- Attitude, willingness to pay and purchase intention
Key Findings:
- Clear names: a picture raised attitudes toward the item
- Clear names: a picture raised willingness to pay and purchase intention
- Unclear names: a picture helped only readers who prefer words
- Unclear names: readers who prefer images responded worse with a picture
For dishes with unclear names, a picture helped some readers and put off others. The study measures attitudes and intentions, not orders on a delivery app.
Yelp photos and restaurant survival
Zhang and Luo (2023), Management Science: "Can Consumer-Posted Photos Serve as a Leading Indicator of Restaurant Survival? Evidence from Yelp"
- The authors studied 755,758 photos that customers posted on Yelp for 17,719 US restaurants.
- The photos predicted restaurant survival for up to three years.
- The share of food photos had the largest positive link with survival.
- The setting is a review site with customer photos, not a delivery app.
Cover images on a review platform in Asia
Khern-am-nuai, So, Cohen and Adulyasak (2024), Manufacturing & Service Operations Management: "Selecting Cover Images for Restaurant Reviews: AI vs. Wisdom of the Crowd"
- The authors ran a randomised field experiment with a large review platform in Asia.
- An AI system chose the cover image for each restaurant in place of a crowd-based system.
- User engagement rose by 12.43% to 16.05% on average.
- The study measures engagement on a review site, not orders.
Online menus and purchase intention
Brewer and Sebby (2021), International Journal of Hospitality Management: "The effect of online restaurant menus on consumers’ purchase intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic"
- The authors modelled online food ordering during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The visual appeal of a menu and its information raised purchase intention.
- The effect worked through desire for the food and the convenience of online ordering.
- The abstract does not isolate photos. The study measures intention, not orders.
Customer photos and restaurant choice
Oliveira and Casais (2019), Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology: "The importance of user-generated photos in restaurant selection"
- The authors surveyed 319 people in the Porto region who searched online for a restaurant.
- These people said photos from other customers of the food and the place are important.
- It is a survey of what people say, in one region of Portugal.
- It is not about delivery apps.
Two Surveys Paid For by Companies
Both companies sell photo or marketing services. The results show what people say, not what they order.
Snappr survey (2020, 600 US consumers)
Snappr, a photography company, paid for a 2020 online survey of 600 US consumers. People rated food pictures 1.44 times as important as menu descriptions. They rated pictures 1.38 times as important as reviews. Snappr gives no question wording and no method.
MGH survey (2019, 1,101 US diners)
The restaurant marketing agency MGH surveyed 1,101 US diners in 2019. Of these, 45% said they look for photos of food on a restaurant's website. The sample was people who are likely to visit a restaurant's website before they eat.
How People Respond to Food Images
Spence and Colleagues (2016), Brain and Cognition
The review paper "Eating with our eyes: From visual hunger to digital satiation" covers neuroscience research on food images. The authors report effects on brain activity, body responses and visual attention, most of all in hungry people.
What it means here: the paper is a review, not a test of menus. It does not measure orders.
People Identify Images Fast
- MIT researchers found that people can identify an image that they see for only 13 milliseconds.
- The paper is Potter, Wyble, Hagmann and McCourt (2014) in Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics.
- The study is not about food or menus.
A Vivid Image Helps People Imagine the Dish
- Fritz, Hadi and Stephen (2023) ran two field studies and two lab studies.
- People saw a dish in augmented reality (AR), on top of their real surroundings.
- AR helped people imagine that they ate the dish.
- That raised their desire for the dish and the likelihood of a purchase.
- The study is about AR, not standard menu photos.
What the Evidence Does Not Show
Limits of the Evidence
What We Did Not Find:
- No independent study measures order uplift on a delivery app
- No source on this page compares professional photos with phone photos
- No source on this page tests photos that AI edits
- No source on this page tests if the effect lasts
How to Read the Platform Figures:
- Own data: each platform reports on its own customers
- Little method: most figures come with no test design
- "Up to": these words show a best case, not an average
- Any photo: most figures are for menus with any photo
- Different units: orders, sales, conversion and baskets are not the same
What We Can and Cannot Say
The Evidence Supports:
- 1Five delivery platforms report more orders or sales for menus with photos
- 2One study found that pictures raise purchase intention for dishes with clear names
- 3Three surveys found that people say food photos matter to them
- 4One Yelp study links a higher share of food photos with restaurant survival
The Evidence Does Not Support:
- A fixed number of extra orders for your restaurant
- A promise that photos help every dish
- A claim that one photo style sells more than another
- A direct comparison of one platform figure with another
What This Means for Your Menu
For Restaurant Owners:
- Add photos to more items. Uber Eats measures menus with photos and descriptions on at least 70% of items.
- Show the dish as you serve it. Just Eat asks for this in its photo rules.
- Use clear dish names. In the 2017 study, pictures helped when the name was clear.
- Read platform figures with care. They are not a forecast for your menu.
To Check the Effect Yourself:
- Record your orders for each item before you add photos
- Add photos to some items first
- Compare the same items after a few weeks
- Keep prices and names the same while you test
Frequently Asked Questions
Do food photos increase orders?
The delivery platforms say yes. Just Eat says an item gets 16% more orders on average after it gets a photo. DoorDash reports up to 44% more monthly sales for menus with item photos. These are company figures. No independent study measures order uplift on a delivery app.
How much do food photos increase sales?
It depends on who reports the figure and what it measures. Deliveroo says sites with menu photos can increase their orders by 25%. Grubhub says conversion rose by about 25% on average for restaurants that changed from text menus to photo menus. Grubhub also reports up to 70% more orders for menus that follow its best practices, which include photos and descriptions. These figures measure different things, so do not compare them directly.
Sources: Deliveroo, Grubhub blog, Grubhub help center
What do independent studies say about menu photos?
A 2017 study by Hou, Yang and Sun tested pictures on menus. For dishes with clear names, pictures raised attitudes, willingness to pay and purchase intention. For dishes with unclear names, a picture helped some readers and put off others. A 2023 study of Yelp found that customer photos predict restaurant survival for up to three years. Neither study measures orders on a delivery app.
Sources: Hou, Yang and Sun (2017), Zhang and Luo (2023)
How reliable is the research on food photos?
It is mixed. The platform figures come from companies that want restaurants to add photos. They give little detail about their methods. The academic papers study menus, review sites and intentions, not delivery orders. Read each figure as a signal, not as a forecast for your restaurant.
Do professional photos work better than phone photos?
We found no source that tests this. Most figures on this page are for menus with any photo. Just Eat does set quality rules. It asks for a sharp, well-lit photo that shows the dish as you serve it.
Sources: Just Eat
Sources & References
Papers in Academic Journals
- Hou, Yang and Sun (2017): "Do pictures help? The effects of pictures and food names on menu evaluations"
International Journal of Hospitality Management 60, 94-103. Pictures and dish names on menus. - Zhang and Luo (2023): "Can Consumer-Posted Photos Serve as a Leading Indicator of Restaurant Survival? Evidence from Yelp"
Management Science 69(1), 25-50. Yelp photos and restaurant survival. - Khern-am-nuai, So, Cohen and Adulyasak (2024): "Selecting Cover Images for Restaurant Reviews: AI vs. Wisdom of the Crowd"
Manufacturing & Service Operations Management 26(1), 330-349. Field experiment on a review platform in Asia. - Brewer and Sebby (2021): "The effect of online restaurant menus on consumers’ purchase intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic"
International Journal of Hospitality Management 94, 102777. Online menus and purchase intention. - Fritz, Hadi and Stephen (2023): "From tablet to table: How augmented reality influences food desirability"
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 51, 503-529. Augmented reality, not standard photos. - Spence, Okajima, Cheok, Petit and Michel (2016): "Eating with our eyes: From visual hunger to digital satiation"
Brain and Cognition 110, 53-63. A review of neuroscience research on food images. - Oliveira and Casais (2019): "The importance of user-generated photos in restaurant selection"
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology 10(1), 2-14. Survey of 319 people in the Porto region. - Potter, Wyble, Hagmann and McCourt (2014): "Detecting meaning in RSVP at 13 ms per picture"
Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 76, 270-279. Not about food.
Delivery Platform Pages and Company Surveys
- Just Eat (UK): Photos on menu
Partner page, updated 1 September 2026. Figures: four times, 16%, 42%, 38%. - DoorDash: 6 Tips for Taking Amazing Restaurant Menu Photos
Merchant blog. Figure: up to 44% more monthly sales (study of over 15,000 merchants, Q2 2022). - DoorDash: DoorDash Unveils Suite of AI-Powered Tools to Enhance Online Menus and Streamline Merchant Operations
Newsroom, 9 April 2025. Figure: an estimated 38% of customers. - DoorDash: 50+ Food and Alcohol Delivery Statistics and Trends for 2025
Merchant blog. Figures: 46% of US Gen Z and 41% of US Millennials. - Deliveroo: How to increase your visibility in the Deliveroo app
Help page. Figure: orders can increase by 25%. - Deliveroo (2018): How does photography impact sales?
Blog post of 3 October 2018, archived copy. Figure: 6.5% higher menu conversion. - Grubhub: Getting started with your Grubhub Menu
Help center. Figures: up to 70% more orders and 65% higher sales. - Uber Eats: New ways to get discovered on Uber Eats
Merchant page. Figure: $330 more in weekly sales on average (US and Canada). - Snappr (2022): Blog post with the survey chart
Company blog, 9 June 2022. We use only the 2020 survey of 600 US consumers, not the headline of the post. - MGH (2019): Survey of US diners about restaurant websites
Press release, 29 August 2019. Survey of 1,101 US adults. We use only the 45% figure.
Eight sources on this page are papers in academic journals. The other figures come from delivery platforms and from two company surveys. Each figure links to its source. The MenuPhotoAI team read each source on 2 October 2026.
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